Cop who refused order appeals

Sunday

Jan 30, 2011 at 12:01 AM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An eastern Pennsylvania university police officer is asking a federal appeals court to rule that he had a right to refuse an order to disperse anti-abortion and anti-gay demonstrators on campus almost four years ago.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An eastern Pennsylvania university police officer is asking a federal appeals court to rule that he had a right to refuse an order to disperse anti-abortion and anti-gay demonstrators on campus almost four years ago.

Cpl. Steve Armbruster said he was given what he considered an unconstitutional order to eject 15 members of the evangelical group Repent America from the Kutztown University campus in April 2007. He was relieved of his duties and later suspended for five days without pay.

A federal judge last year rejected his lawsuit, and The Philadelphia Inquirer said the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia heard his appeal last week.

Students and university officials said the group showed up unexpectedly to preach against homosexuality and was confronted by hundreds of students. A judge later dismissed disorderly conduct charges against members but criticized them for demonstrating on the campus without the university's permission.

Armbruster contended that the order by the university president and the campus police chief would violate the group's civil rights and subject him to liability.

U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones II Jones ruled last year that Armbruster was serving in his official capacity, so his rights were not violated. He also rejected Armbruster's position that he had a right to refuse to violate the constitutional rights of others.

"Based on this court's research, over the past 30 years, no (higher court) has held such a right exists," Jones wrote.

Armbruster's attorney, Randall Wenger of the Independent Law Center in Harrisburg, told the appeals court last week that the demonstration was not disorderly, but merely offended the students, and that made the order to remove the demonstrators unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief saying Armbruster deserves a chance to prove he was ordered to "violate the clearly established rights of protesters on public property."

Armbruster, a 20-year veteran of the campus force, is now running for Carbon County sheriff.